The present invention relates generally to parallel reactors, and in particular, to parallel research reactors suitable for use in a combinatorial (i.e., high-throughput) science research program in which chemical reactions are conducted simultaneously using small volumes of reaction materials to efficiently and economically screen large libraries of chemical materials.
The present invention is related to co-owned International Application No. PCT/US 99/18358, filed Aug. 12, 1999 by Turner et al., entitled Parallel Reactor with Internal Sensing and Method of Using Same, published Feb. 24, 2000 (International Publication No. WO 00/09255), and which is incorporated herein by reference for all purposes. This PCT application claims priority from the following co-owned, co-pending U.S. applications bearing the same title, all of which are also incorporated by reference: Ser. No. 09/211,982, filed Dec. 14, 1998 by Turner et al. (issued Oct. 23, 2001, as U.S. Pat. No. 6,306,658) and Ser. No. 09/177,170, filed Oct. 22, 1998 by Dales et al., claiming the benefit of provisional application Ser. No. 60/096,603, filed Aug. 13, 1998 by Dales et al. The present invention is also related to co-owned, co-pending U.S. application Ser. No. 09/548,848, filed Apr. 13, 2000 by Turner et al., entitled Parallel Reactor with Internal Sensing and Method of Using Same, claiming priority from the aforementioned PCT application; U.S. application Ser. No. 09/239,223, filed Jan. 29, 1999 by Wang et al., entitled Analysis and Control of Parallel Chemical Reactions; U.S. application Ser. No. 09/873,176, filed Jun. 1, 2001, by Nielsen et al., entitled Parallel Semicontinuous or Continuous Reactors, claiming the benefit of U.S. provisional application Ser. No. 60/209,142, filed Jun. 3, 2000, by Nielsen et al., entitled Parallel Semicontinuous or Continuous Stirred Reactors and U.S. Provisional application Ser. No. 60/255,716, filed Dec. 14, 2000, by Nielsen et al., entitled Parallel Semicontinuous or Continuous Stirred Reactors, all of which are hereby incorporated by reference for all purposes. These applications disclose a number of embodiments for parallel research reactors suitable for use, for example, in combinatorial chemistry applications such as polymer research and catalyst research. However, these embodiments are not especially suited for processing certain slurry materials, such as those containing small particle solids (e.g., silica or alumina particles used as catalyst supports) which can cause excessive wear and/or impede proper operation of reactor equipment, or slurries having aggressive bonding characteristics, which may make them difficult to handle and to clean from reactor equipment. There is a need, therefore, for a system capable of handling such materials.
The present invention is also generally related to systems for effecting the transfer of fluid materials, including slurry materials and solutions, to and from the reactor vessels of a parallel reactor system. Such fluid transfer systems include robotic fluid transfer systems of the type comprising a cannula for holding fluid material, and a robot system for transporting the cannula to a fluid transfer location.